ROCKWORK. 



701 



artificial ; and, though now it seems 

 nothing strange to hazard such a remark, 

 yet its truth still requires to be brought 

 more boldly and closely home to us 

 before we can expect to see our gardens 

 what they ought to be." 



§ 2. — ROCKWORK. 



Rockwork is a department in ornamen- 

 tal gardening too much neglected. The 

 great difficulty in many situations of 

 procuring proper materials, and still more 

 so of finding men of natural taste and 

 judgment to construct it properly, may 

 account for the few instances we meet 

 with of anything like natural imitations, 

 and the many absurd and incongruous 

 masses of stones, shells, petrifications, 

 vitrified bricks, &c, huddled together in 

 ample confusion. 



An excellent specimen of rockwork was 

 erected some years ago in the grounds 

 at the Colosseum in the Regent's Park, 

 composed entirely of stone, and upon a 

 very large scale, many of the blocks being 

 nearly two tons in weight. 



The rock garden at Blenheim extends 

 over an acre of surface, and is intended 

 to imitate rocky scars on the face of a 

 steep bank. It is composed of limestone, 

 full of organic remains; that kind of 

 material abounding in, and being natu- 

 ral to the locality. Access is got from 

 one part of the rock to another by means 

 of well-contrived stairs, which run in 

 oblique lines from one part to another. 



The rockwork at Sion is intended to 

 display a ridge of massive rock, inter- 

 mingled with Alpine vegetation, but is 

 exceedingly poor and trifling, and, at the 

 same time, misplaced. A rich architectu- 

 ral wall, with all its accompaniments of 

 balustrading, vases, &c, would have been 

 more in character with the place and 

 circumstances. It is intended to form the 

 boundary of a geometrical flower-garden, 

 in front of a highly architectural range 

 of conservatories, (vide Plate XVI.) We 

 have noticed in the very extensive nursery- 

 grounds of Mr Skirving, at Liverpool, an 

 imitation of natural rock, formed of hete- 

 rogeneous materials, and surfaced over 

 with cement, where a screen is thrown 

 across a part of the grounds in very excel- 

 lent taste, and exemplifying a principle 



that might frequently be used for shutting 

 out disagreeable objects, or dividing one 

 part of a flower-garden from another, as in 

 the case alluded to, which is placed so as to 

 enclose the pleasure-grounds round Mr 

 Skirving's house from the public nursery- 

 grounds, and may be described as an arch 

 thrown across the main walk, having 

 wings, or rugged masses extending into, 

 and losing themselves amongst, evergreen 

 shrubbery. 



The skeleton is formed of common 

 quarry stones, the fused masses of brick 

 procured from the brick kilns, or, indeed, 

 any coarse material most convenient to 

 be got. These are built up in the most 

 rugged and misshapen forms imaginable, 

 and afterwards covered over with Roman 

 cement, and formed into recesses, pro- 

 jections, and overhanging crags, accord- 

 ing to the taste of the artist. Sufficient 

 apertures are left for receiving soil, in 

 which rock-plants are planted. When 

 the whole is perfectly set and dry, it is 

 painted with oil-paint to represent veined 

 or stratified granite, or any other kind of 

 natural rock that may be desired. Here 

 is no unnatural mixture of shells, fossils, 

 petrifications, architectural remains, and 

 natural masses of stone huddled together, 

 as if it were the omnium-gatherum of the 

 vestiges of creation. 



The rockwork lately erected at Chats- 

 worth is certainly upon the most stupen- 

 dous scale of anything of the kind in the 

 world, and forms a screen, or rather a 

 piece of alpine scenery, dividing the 

 grounds around that princely mansion, 

 with its enriched parterres, from the 

 Mammoth Conservatory. 



Here there is no dwindling away into 

 mere imitations. The thing is really and 

 substantially as natural as if Sir Joseph 

 Paxton had, by some supernatural means, 

 removed a slice of one of the Derbyshire 

 hills, and set it down where it is. Many 

 of the stones are several tons in weight. 



There appear to be two leading objects 

 to be kept in view in the construction of 

 artificial rockeries— namely, an imitation 

 of the surface, broken and disturbed, and 

 intermingled with alpine vegetation. In 

 this point Sir Joseph has eminently suc- 

 ceeded. The other is an imitation of the 

 natural stratification of some particular 

 section of rock, geologically arranged. 

 This we have never seen more than faintly 



